Purpose-Driven Hype

Go-betweens can attract as much attention as the factions they seek to reconcile: see Squanto (Pilgrims and Indians), Jimmy Carter (Egypt and Israel), Tookie Williams (Bloods and Crips), and the producers of the newly revived “Beverly Hills, 90210” (Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty). The most prominent mediator of late is Pastor Rick Warren, who has wrangled John McCain and Barack Obama for their first joint appearance, to be held on August 16th at Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, California. This is a coup, Warren acknowledged, speaking by phone the other day from São Paulo, Brazil, but he was circumspect about all the fuss. “I like to leave town when the news is about me,” he said. “Usually when I’m overseas, somebody kills a judge and something happens like the hostage reads my book and turns himself in.” Warren was referring to the fact that in 2005, while he was in Rwanda, a man who had shot three people in an Atlanta courthouse surrendered after taking a captive, who steered him to Warren’s “The Purpose-Driven Life.” (Later, she admitted that she also gave him crystal meth.)

Still, like any party promoter, Warren knows that a successful get-together needs a little hype. Billed as a “Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion,” the McCain/Obama event will occupy a prime slot: five to seven on a Saturday night. Dominating the church’s Web site is a pop-up ad in the style of an old-timey woodcut poster, the type you might see announcing a Willie Nelson stand at the Ryman. McCain and Obama face off in three-quarter profile, as if tuning up for a battle of the bands. Warren plans to introduce the presumptive nominees together and then to interview each for an hour. He determined who will go first—Obama—with a coin toss.

The idea for the summit goes back to April, when Messiah College, in Grantham, Pennsylvania, invited the Presidential candidates to campus for a discussion of moral issues. Obama and Hillary Clinton showed up. McCain bagged it. “Along about June, they asked, ‘Would you be interested in helping to host a second forum?’ ” Warren recalled. “Over the next month, it became clear that there was a stalemate between the campaigns. It was pretty much dead in the water.” Warren, who doesn’t make endorsements, called McCain and Obama—“good friends,” both—on their cell phones. “I just went straight to the principals,” he said.

Warren will be the evening’s sole interlocutor. His style as a moderator seems less akin to the pointed tactics of George Stephanopoulos (“Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?”) or the pin-down technique of the late Tim Russert (“What can you tell me about the man who’s going to be Mr. Putin’s successor?”) than to the Socratic approach that the ladies on “The View” employed with Michelle Obama (“You’re not wearing panty hose?”). “These commentators pounce on every misstatement, every partial statement,” Warren said. Under his questioning, the candidates will enjoy a “ten-per-cent grace factor.” No stumpers. Warren said, “I always think, Aw, he didn’t mean that.”

Warren, who favors Hawaiian shirts over suits, wants “to sit down and do the sort of David Frost or the Charlie Rose interview,” and he gave a preview of some of the topics he might broach. “In most debates, ninety-five per cent of the questions have had to do with hot-button political issues—it’s the war, it’s oil, it’s the border, it’s health care,” he said, and explained that he finds these lines of inquiry “really quite short-term.” He offered some alternatives. Q.: “Are you a leader or a manager?” Q.: “Tell me the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make.” Think Human Resources.

With Web pundits—the bookies of the political game—referring to the matchup as “The Rumble Before the Humble,” it seemed like a good time to get Don King on the line. King, an enthusiastic supporter of President Bush, wouldn’t say which candidate he’s backing, but he offered a potential slogan for the showdown: “Remember Iowa!” (inspired, he said, by “Remember the Alamo”). Were King in charge, he’d fire up the public with a sort of historical-highlight reel: “I would remind them that when the water was over the portholes and John Paul Jones’s ship was sinking, the British commanders yelled across the bow, ‘Do you surrender?’ and John Paul Jones retorted, ‘I have not yet begun to fight!’ Then I would take them to a town-hall meeting, where freedom echoed out through the chambers: ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ Now you’re getting like one fighter jumping on the other fighter and calling him out. You’re calling out the heritage of this nation.” He went on, “What you are selling is America. You’ve got excitement beyond belief.” ♦

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